I grew up in a household where my mom worked for a paediatrician and that meant we had a full medicine cabinet at all times. Whenever there was a sign of anyone getting sick or having a headache we went right to the cabinet to see what we could take. We didn’t abuse pain meds, but this was quite normal in our household to get of a problem. It wasn’t until my early twenties when I got sick of always taking pain meds and started to wonder if there was another way.
When I was a teenager I used to get really bad headaches that seemed to correlate with that time of the month. Period cramping was pretty severe to the point where it would make me feel nauseous most of the time. The combination of the two was a common theme every month and I thought that it was just normal; “that’s just my body;” “I just have really bad periods.” The travel size bottle of ibuprofen or Advil had to get refilled every month to just get through.
When I graduated high school I started running and going to the gym to keep fit. I had to pick and choose what cardio machines I would go on based on my knee pain. I had to limit myself on certain types of cardio- if I ran too regularly, one or both of my knees would start aching or they would just give out. I would often wear a knee brace and I would switch off sides depending on which one was giving me grief. If the pain got too much I would take some pain killers to get some relief.
After I graduated college I met James. Little did I know, moving to Australia was in my future… but at the time we got on the topic of what he did for a career. He was a Chiropractor? I had no idea what a chiropractor even did. I was extremely afraid of the idea of getting “adjusted” (whatever that meant) and didn’t want him to adjust my neck. Once I moved out to Australia, it took me some time to get comfortable with the idea of chiropractic in general. When I was finally open to the idea, I started getting adjusted regularly and I started to feel better. This was new.
I realised that I wasn’t getting sick or injured as often- I was no longer in need of my knee brace. I was able to run regularly without knee pain which made it so much more enjoyable…if running could be enjoyable. When that time of the month came around, my cramps weren’t nearly as painful and the nausea went away. An added bonus, I wasn’t getting headaches anymore! I was a bit confused as I had never experienced this before. Although all of these things were wonderful, the biggest benefit for me was I no longer had to carry around a bottle of ibuprofen in my purse. I kept the bottle for a little while just in case, but after having it in my purse since the age of 15, I thought that at the age of 28 it was time to let it go.
Now, I am by no means saying that I am “cured” in any of these examples. I still experience period cramps, headaches and when I actually find the time to run with 2 children, I might experience some knee pain. My point in all of this is, for me, all of these got better with Chiropractic care.
This story goes beyond being the Chiropractors wife or the business owner. The truth is, I want to do what is best for my body and also do right by our kids. Cain, Peyton and I go in once a week to “visit daddy” and while we are there we all get checked. Regardless if James was a Chiropractor, I can honestly say that I would now take myself and my kids to get checked because for us we have seen the benefits.
